Project Statement:
Humankind has always had a complicated relationship with nature, characterized by awe and admiration, tension and destruction. The human desire to be surrounded by images of nature has been replicated in household ornamentation throughout civilizations. The walls of the imperial villas of Ancient Rome were adorned with frescoes detailing rich flora and fauna. During the Renaissance, Rafael reinvented this ancient style through his grotesques, which depict birds, fruits, and plant life. Carefully crafted representations of the natural world were re-imagined yet again in 19th-century Britain, when William Morris began producing richly ornamented wallpaper featuring wild birds and vegetation.
“Birds of a Prey” is a continued exploration, offering a new perspective on this tradition with portraits of live owls, falcons and eagles photographed against complementary fabric. This series references that desire to posses the beautiful and the wild, a possession that permanently changes the object of desire through its dislocation. The backgrounds in this series are selected to induce beauty, optical illusion and visual blending; the birds appear to belong when in reality, it is a far cry from their natural environment.
Artist Bio:
Claire Rosen is an award-winning artist, whose elaborate constructions often feature anthropomorphic animals and evoke the aesthetics of classical painting, frequently referencing the Victorian Era with its fascination of the natural world and ideals of beauty.
Claire’s work has been exhibited in shows from New York to Seoul, and can be found in a number of collections. In 2012 and 2013, Claire earned a place on Forbes’ “30 Brightest Under 30” list for Art & Design. Her work has also received recognition from Aesthetica, Communication Arts, IPA, Graphis, PDN Annual, United Photo Industries’ THE FENCE, Photolucida Critical Mass and PX3. Her work has been featured in Beautiful/Decay, Complex Art+Design, Creative Quarterly Journal, Der Greif, Direct Art, Faded+Blurred, Fast Company, Feature Shoot, The Guardian UK, Hi-Fructose Magazine, Juxtapoz, NPR Weekend Edition, Refinery29, Slate and WPO.
Claire has lectured about the creative process around the world. Her book, IMAGINARIUM: The Process Behind the Pictures, published by Rocky Nook, covers the artistic practice of photography. Claire is a brand ambassador for Dynalite, FujiFilm US, Hahnemühle USA and liveBooks.
Claire graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2006, and from Bard College at Simon’s Rock in 2003.
